The present invention relates to articles and methods for prepping a patient prior to surgery.
Prior to surgery, the present technique for prepping a patient comprises a ten-minute surgical scrub using a soap and/or a bactericidal agent, usually in the operating room. In spite of this and other precautions, it has been found that bacteria from the skin cause subsequent superficial and deep wound infections in a certain number of the surgical cases, which of course is undesirable. It is believed that such bacteria come from the sebaceous ducts and glands, the sweat glands, from the outer dead keratinized layer of the skin, and from the environment.
The result of such skin infections can be very serious to the patient. For example, in a total hip operation, in the case of infection it is necessary to bring the patient back into the hospital to treat the infection, and later re-admit the patient to replace the total hip at a cost of at least $20,000. Further, a surgical infection has deleterious effects on a patient, including those associated with the trauma of repeat surgical procedures, exposure to nosicomial infection(s), septicemia, and death.
The present prepping procedures also require undue time spent in the operating room which delays the surgical procedure and prolongs anesthetic time. When considering the approximately 20,000,000 surgical procedures in the United States each year, it will be seen that the total time delay in the operating room due to the current prepping procedures is enormous, not to mention the total cost of the prepping procedures which is approximately $300.00 for each prepping procedure. Hence, not only is it desirable to decrease the incidence of infections from the skin during surgical procedures, it is also desirable to eliminate the delays and costs associated with current prepping procedures in the operating room.